Growing Pains
by Ayla Curtis
Summary: A collection of moments during the early years of Sparda and his earthly family. AU depending on your POV. Chapter 17 finally done The Anniverary: Side B!
1. Happy Birthday, Boys

Disclaimer – I don't own the rights to Devil May Cry or related characters.

**Growing Pains**

**By **

**Ayla Curtis**

_Foreword – This is an impression, using the template of the boys being brought up in more modern time in an attempted 'average' family, with Sparda being married to their mum, them all living together and the parents not being dead yet. It's just for fun. I have no real idea how it all happened._

_All events in the chapters in this will come in no particular chronological order, as they will be written as and when they come to me. They are the result of numerous conversations at the bus stop. Unless stated otherwise, Sparda is always in his 'human' form, (which I assume to be the 'Legendary Dark Knight' bonus costume)…but _not_ dressed like a past ages aristocrat with a bloody stupid purple monocle. _

Happy Birthday, Boys

We enter this scene at the end of young Dante and Vergil's birthday. It's coming to night time, the party is over, they are a year older and their dad has decided its time that they got his _special_ presents.

His beloved boys were arguing over the last slice of fudge cake and attempting to brain each other with varying available cutlery (much to their mother's dismay) when Sparda swaggered into the dining room with a smile and two very long packages in his hands.

"Yay! More presents!" Dante squealed in delight and leapt to his feet to run over and attempt to wrench the colourfully wrapped gift with his name on it from his father's arms.

Sparda seemed amused by his cockiest son's attempt and declined to let him take it so simply, instead holding it just tight enough so the boy really had to struggle to pry it from his grip.

Vergil politely waited to be given his.

Eventually both presents were received and were torn open with much enthusiasm. Shiny paper fluttered in the air while Eva padded over to watch the event. She had heard nothing of these two gifts that her husband had just brought in.

"Oh wow! This is _so_ cool!" Dante yelped as he broke open the cardboard box to reveal the medieval style two-handed sword inside.

Vergil's eyes went unbelievably wide as he saw the katana within his own, more neatly opened, box.

"You can't give them _swords_!" Eva screamed at Sparda while she watched in horror as the twins tried to heft the heavy blades.

"Why ever not?" Sparda asked.

"You don't give young boys swords for their birthday!"

"I got a sword for _my_ birthday." Sparda told her while fondly thinking about his own.

"I think you'll find that that was more coming-of-age than actual birthday. And you just don't little boys dangerous weapons!"

"It's a bit late now." Sparda huffed as the boys inspected their gifts with glee.

He knelt down on the floor in between them so he could pat them both softly on the head. "Do you like them?"

"Yeah!" Dante announced, punching the air above him.

Vergil nodded and clutched at the hilt with both hands.

Sparda laid two fingers of each hand on the flat of each blade (Vergil had unsheathed his). "They have names. Dante, yours is called Rebellion. Vergil, yours is called Yamato."

They both smiled and admired the shiny cold steel they had been given.

-Two Hours Later-

Sparda, Eva and Vergil stood beside a bed in a curtained off cubicle of a hospital A&E ward. Dante was lying on the bed, after having the deep slice his arm stitched up.

The doctor was presently away writing a prescription for something or another to help the pain.

(To make this whole thing work you must pretend that at this tender age, Dante hasn't got his whole uber no-scar-quick-heal ability yet…he'll grow into it…wont take long).

"I knew it was a bad idea." Eva grumbled and tried to stop Dante picking in fascination at his stitches. "I told you that you shouldn't give them swords. Now look what's happened."

"The quickest way to learn is through your mistakes." Sparda said in his defence.

"He is seriously hurt!"

"It's just a gash."

"_Just_ a gash?" she slapped him upside the head.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"You know perfectly well." She hissed. "Sometimes you are more childish than these two! And that's a hard thing to achieve!"

Sparda crossed his arms and grumbled to himself, hoping they could go home soon.

_End_

_Author's Note – So there you have it, the first chapter of this random events fic. Please let me know what you think. If and when my friends and I have more obscure little conversations I will type them out and post them up._


	2. A Family Outing

A Family Outing

It had been Eva's bright idea. Though she tried to refrain from going on family outings in public places due to the inevitable sibling battles and general forgetfulness on her demonic husband's part about the uniqueness of the family, she had decided that there were some things that just had to be done.

She was going to teach her sons to swim, and her dear Sparda would be helping whether he liked the idea or not.

He _really_ didn't like the idea.

"I don't see why _I_ have to come along." He complained bitterly as he drove them towards the leisure centre as he had been told. "You could drive. You could drive before I knew how. You're the expert."

"It's about time we did something as a family. _Dante, stop that right now! _And all kids should learn to swim. _Vergil, put that down! _I had always planned to do this when they were a lot younger because it's best to start them when they're only babies…I just never found the time. _Cut it out, the pair of you! _Plus, there was never a guarantee that they wouldn't do something 'unusual'. But now they know not to let any demonic ability show."

The car jerked awkwardly as Sparda had to make an abrupt halt to prevent crashing into some fool in a convertible that zipped over a crossing at breakneck speed. "You pathetic human whelp, I should gut you for that!" Sparda yelled at the retreating green vehicle. This was followed by a long list of profanities.

Eva could only hope that the boys would forget most of what they heard or at least didn't repeat it.

After that incident the journey became a lot less calm and various phrases were produced by the frustrated Dark Knight along the way.

"Oh come on; you could fit a _bus_ through that!"

"Move it Mr. Porsche. I'm driving a Frontera and I've been going faster than you!"

"You ever heard of changing gear!"

"How many lanes do you want! You're in a Fiesta not a bloody Hum V!"

"Get your break lights out of my face!"

"What are you playing at! This isn't Grand Turismo!"

"Is that meant to be music! Turn it down or take requests!"

Eventually, however, they reached their desired destination and after locating and making use of a parking space that did not require automobile ballet to reach, the family made their way inside. After that it was to the changing rooms, to the lockers and then to the pool itself.

Random women in the pool got quite excited when the tall, handsome man with the bright white hair and perfect muscle tone walked out the door into the main pool. Then they got all upset when they saw the wedding band on his finger. In light of this they instead cooed over the two cute and also white-haired twin boys that were following him. One was in blue swimming trunks and the other in red. Sparda had black. (What did you expect?)

He led his boys over to where Eva was waiting in her dark green swimsuit beside their towels.

"You took your time." she commented.

Sparda gave her an exasperated look. "They wouldn't co-operate!"

Dante gave a small slight smiled and Vergil tried to smother a giggle with his hand.

"How do you mean?" Eva enquired.

"Vergil kept running off, nearly lost the locker key and to top it all off Dante threw my underwear into the next door cubicle while we were changing. It was _occupied_. You have no idea how embarrassing it was to have to knock on the door and ask for them back. "

Eva glared at the boys. "Well, I hope you at least apologised."

The twins looked up at their father with puppy eyes. "We're sorry." They said in perfect, adorable unison.

Sparda just huffed and crossed his arms. "Can we just get this over with please?"

Eva smiled sweetly and took the boy's hands. "Come on then."

She brought them into the shallow end of the water and they took to it like…well…ducks. They seemed just as at home paddling around as they did legging it after each other on dry land. It didn't take long for the usual brotherly fighting to return. Though this time it was more playful than usual with the two of them mainly competing to see who could swim faster or hold their breath longer. Eva watched happily, though got worried when at one point they stopped coming up for air. It turned out that their devil abilities allowed them this gift and she had to remind them to put an effort into acting as if this was not the case.

She then realised that her husband was not in the pool at all…in fact; he had never gotten in, in the first place. He was just sitting on the edge and watching them splash about.

Eva went over to him. "Get in the pool will you." She told him. "I know that you wanted to stay at home but that's no reason to go on strike. You should be spending time with your sons. That's the point of being here!"

"What's the point in standing around in a big puddle of chlorine?" he whined gruffly.

"Well then go off for a swim or something. You don't have to stay in the shallow end, _permanently_. Just some of the time. You could take them with you. They're strong swimmers. Just look at them."

"I would but…" his voice trailed off.

"What is it?"

"I..."

"Say what?"

"I can't swim! There, happy now? Come on, I lived in the underworld and I was a warrior. Swimming was something they neglected to teach me when I was learning swordsmanship. Plus the fact that there wasn't a lot to swim _in_ unless you fancied pools of souls or boiling hot lava or something…"

_End_

_Author's Note – It just came to me. Not as funny as in my head. Hey ho, never mind. Right. I'm off to write the next one. I just had a thought. (Ouch.)_

_Thanks to all who reviewed so far! RI2, I will most certainly give your suggestions a go. _


	3. Unwelcome Guest

Unwelcome Guest

It was a quiet enough Saturday afternoon. Vergil was kicking a ball about in the garden, Sparda was occupied upstairs and Dante was in the kitchen with his mother, attempting to get his hands on the biscuit barrel that he was being denied.

"If I let you have biscuits you won't eat your dinner." Eva told him.

"Yeah I will." Dante argued. "I promise I will. _Please?_"

"For the last time, no. Don't make me repeat myself young man."

He sighed lazily but otherwise had nothing to say.

"Dinner won't be long." She reassured him.

"But I'm hungry _now_."

"You can tell me that all you want but I'm still going to make you wait."

"Meanie."

"Yes." she agreed with a smile.

He returned the expression.

And it was at that moment that the Pride demon erupted out of a red rift portal and into the kitchen, swinging it's scythe down in an attempt to cleave the mother and child in two.

With a split second left to spare Eva scooped up Dante and dived out of the way. She then pushed him towards the door. "Go and get your father! Hurry! Go!"

Dante did as he was told, sprinting for the stairs while Eva scrambled to her feet and grabbed the closest thing she could to use as a weapon to hold the demon back for as long as she could.

(Though Sparda did indeed close the door to the demon world, there were a handful who were on the earthly side when it shut and became stuck in the realm of humans. They hid away and popped out every so often to terrorise mortals. There were, also those demons called forth by rituals performed by daft Satanists who really don't know what they're getting into…as well as the lesser demons who managed to squeeze around the edges.)

"Dad, dad, dad! There'sademoninthekitchenyougottacomequick!" Dante hollered, all in one breath, as he pelted up the stairs. He knocked as heavily as he could on the door that his father was behind.

From downstairs the sound of crashing and smashing could be heard, punctuated by the odd sound only describable as a hollow 'donk'.

Sparda threw open the door, dashed into the bedroom and snatched up a sword from its cradle on the wall among a collection of other weaponry. Now armed, he stormed down to the kitchen in time to see his human wife whack the demon around the face with a frying pan, producing another resounding 'donk'. (Ah, Tefal; long lasting and deadly. Isn't the cliché just too much to bear?) She would have preferred a knife but unfortunately the demon was between them and her.

"I'll take it from here." Sparda announced as he hefted his sword and dropped into a fighter's crouch. The stance and its general impression on the demonic foe would have been a lot better if it were not for Sparda's sopping wet hair plastered around his face and the fact he was wearing nothing more than a fluffy white towel to preserve his modesty.

The fight was short and particularly bloody, after which he stormed away again in a huff. He hated having his bath interrupted.

_End_

_Author's Note – Sorry this one is so short...and it could have gone better I suppose. Ah well, stuff it. It had to happen; the image was too much to leave floating in the back of my head. Just 'coz he can't swim, it doesn't mean he can't enjoy a nice soak. Never disturb a legendary demon when he's relaxing._

_Hey people, help an author out; Sparda would have to get some kind of official ID…so what would he put his name as? What would be the family's surname? I know some people have put Dante down as 'Dante Sparda' but I can't call his dad 'Sparda Sparda' now can I?(Ri2, if he's gonna get a job, the man's gonna need a name)_

_Again; huge thanks for all the wonderful reviews! You make me so happy! It's great to see that people are enjoying my moments of insanity. Hope to see you all soon for the next one. Bye for now!_


	4. Munchies

Munchies

Sparda was sitting in an armchair in the front room watching a TV programme that he had switched on at random. He'd been doing that for ages. He was bored out of his skull and could find absolutely nothing to keep himself occupied. He had already read every book in the house so there was no point heading to the shelf. Every weapon he had was already sharpened to within an inch of their lives as well as having their metal polished and leather oiled. The laundry had already been done. The garden was tended. The boys and their mother were out shopping so he couldn't play a game. The washing up was dealt with. The house was clean. The computer was out having a 'check-up'…the TV was all he head left.

And nothing was on.

He clicked on a button without looking and some programme about the Second World War came up. He soon lost interest. Then he found a channel with racing but flicked off when no one crashed. He had no desire to watch an hour-long special on arts and crafts nor did he wish to sit through The Sound of Music. After seeing part of a re-run of Diagnosis Murder his eyes glazed over and he fell asleep. He awoke to a cookery programme that was trying to tell him how to properly roast lamb shanks.

At the sight of the tender, juicy, steaming meat he suddenly found his stomach rumbling as if it hadn't been filled for a week. Though the house was empty he still felt embarrassed to have his digestive system make such a loud, long and aggressive noise.

He was hungry. He figured that getting something to eat would whittle away some time before the kids and wife got home to keep him company.

He made a b-line for the kitchen and briefly considered cooking something…no, that would take too long and the smell would make his hunger even worse. So, first he opened up the cupboard and reached for what was left of the biscuits…followed by a few fig rolls. That wasn't satisfying though, and now his throat felt dry so he opened up the fridge and took a good look at the cold bounty within. He grabbed a carton of milk from the door and downed it before scarfing an entire packet of beef jerky. Next in line for the trip to his complaining stomach were a chocolate bar, a ham sandwich (he had to make that one) and finally two Pepperamis. After discovering that not even that could quell the noises within he microwaved a tin of spaghetti hoops and mini hot dogs. That lasted all of five minutes before the bowl was empty and he found he had dripped tomato sauce down his front.

There wasn't really anything else left. That was the whole reason that Eva and the boys were out shopping. There was, in fact, only one thing left really.

He looked at the fridge again.

If he ate that though, Eva would kill him.

His stomach tightened and burbled pathetically as if it was about to collapse into nothingness.

'Stuff it' he thought to himself and reached into the fridge.

-A Few Minutes Later

Dante, Vergil and Eva filed inside, dragging shopping with them.

"Sparda, would you possibly mind giving us a hand here?" Eva called out, as she started dragging the bags through the front room.

"Mmmf?" was the rather guilty little noise the Legendary Dark Knight made as she saw him perched on the kitchen worktop with a large plate on his lap.

"Oh my god!" she screeched. "How could you! That was for tonight!"

"I'm sorry." He wailed. "But I was so hungry I thought I'd die!"

"There were other snacks in here!"

"I ate them too."

"I don't know what's worse." She said, hands on hips. "That fact you're eating the Sunday roast, or that you're eating it raw."

End

Author's Note – Aww, he's such a carnivore. Mmmm…lamb…I like lamb. I'm hungry too now…

I'm glad people seem to like these and I can only hope you'll like any more that happen to turn up. I think I'll try and do the flu idea too, Biohazard, as I already have something like that which I was going to use for Half Moon…but it would be better in Growing Pains. I wanna do something with the boys at school and a few others, including one or two of Ri2's suggestions. Again, if you got an idea please let me know

Oh, and Scorch the hedgehog; yeah, I heard. I think it's out in Japan end of this year. And a DMC4 should be on the PS3 when it arrives. Oh…so far away…

And Meirelle; the towel was originally going to be pink…but I changed my mind. I just couldn't do that to him.


	5. Dictionary

Dictionary 

Sometimes, the family did manage to do things in a calm manner. There were some times when they could sit down and play a board game or something without a war breaking out between the brothers.

It looked as if this was going to be one of those times.

They were playing scrabble.

The parents, of course, had to go easy on the boys due to their age-stinted vocabulary, but they were still doing quite well. Currently, Vergil had just made 'Values'. He was proud of that one.

Next was Sparda's turn. He made a thoughtful hum and started at his tiles. He then brightened up. He had been lagging behind his wife in the points department but now he could see the chance to get ahead. He laid down every tile he had.

"Nyujeka" Eva tried to pronounce what he had laid down. "That isn't a word."

"Yes it is." He argued. "It is a word. I know it's a word. Just because you haven't heard it before it doesn't mean it's not a real word."

Eva picked up the dictionary and looked it up. "It's not in here. Take the tiles back."

"No."

"Don't be so stubborn. You can't just make up a word because you're sore about not being at the top of the marks tally."

"It _is_ a word; it's a demon word. It is a word for apologising with when needing to be meek or humble before a higher entity than yourself." He quoted as if he was a wise sage.

"That's not right!" Dante told his father. "S'not a real word so take it back ya cheater."

"Yeah, dad." Vergil rallied to his brother's side (for once.) "Play fair."

"It is a real word! I swear!" Sparda protested.

"Even if it is a real demon word you can't use it unless it's in a dictionary." Eva pointed out.

"I know. It is in a dictionary too, so there."

"Really? I'd love to see it. Why don't you fetch it for us?"

"Fine. Let me just go and open up the door to the demon realm and go back to the underworld to get it, shall I." He said, rising from his seat. "I'll be back in a minute, see you later sweetheart."

"Don't be so daft." She said, grabbing his hand a pulling him down. "Play by the rules. This is a human game so you use human words from a human dictionary."

He grumbled and collected his tiles back.

They made him skip a turn for being childish.

This gave Dante a turn. He laid down the 'F' word.

Eva quickly swept the tiles out of place. "Where did you learn that?"

Dante looked sheepish. "S'what dad said when he dropped his sword on his foot."

Eva glared at her husband.

Now it was Sparda's turn to look sheepish. "Nyujeka." He said.

_End _

_Author's Note – That came from Red Dwarf and my friend Magpie's dream. And no, Nyujeka is not a real word. Wow, I'm sorry this one sucked so bad and was so short but I was in a hurry to post something….it's been a busy week so I haven't had much time. I'll post another within the next few days to make up for it. Hope you're all still enjoying it. And thank you for the reviews!_


	6. A Fateful Meeting

A Fateful Meeting

It came to be known by many names and all instilled an equal amount of dread in a certain Legendary Dark Knight.

Review Day...Parent's Evening...Parent/Teacher Night...

He had tried so hard to find a way out, any excuse however small which he could use to convince Eva to leave him behind, but she had insisted this year. He had managed to evade all of the previous ones by knowing the date and pre-planning to have something highly important that needed to be done, but this time she had caught him by surprise. She had kept the date secret from him until it was far too late to back out.

He was doomed.

The twins weren't at all happy to be there either, more so than Sparda as they knew full well what they had been up to, but flanked by both parents there was no way that they would be sneaking off.

After a long, anxious wait they were finally called over to the boy's class teacher, Mrs Abigail Dancy, who greeted them with a smile so warm it had to be false and a handshake gone limp from overuse that day with so many parents and guardians coming ad going.

"Hello, it's nice to see you again Mrs Sparda." she said to Eva and then turned to the nervous, tall man beside her who was being used as a shield by his sons. "And finally I get to meet _Mr_ Sparda. Pleased to meet you, I'm Mrs Dancy; your boys' tutor."

"I assumed that you would be." he commented, which earned him an elbow to the side and a sharp glare from his wife.

"Yes...well...please take a seat." Mrs Dancy said and waved to the chairs set out in front of the desk that she was behind. She began to flip through a couple of registers and some reports. "You should be pleased to hear that Vergil is going from strength to strength in all subjects...but I'm afraid to say that the same cannot be said of Dante."

Sparda's eyes narrowed and he picked absently at his fingers while Eva, concerned, leaned in to peer at the records that were being indicated.

"As you can see," the teacher continued, "He hasn't slipped back at all but neither am I seeing the progress I would expect. He is bright enough but he seems loathe to apply himself. He's behind in his homework and only does enough class work to prevent a letter being sent home."

"Oh really?" Eva said and glared at Dante who had the decency to look apologetic.

Mrs Dancy continued. "Other than his lack of enthusiasm he's doing well enough. Both boys excel in PE and Vergil is every dedicated in everything he does. Unfortunately...there are a few things that do need to be brought up about them."

At these words even Sparda shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The twins seemed to shrink back in their chairs and shared a silent mutual prayer to any god or devil (father gladly included) who might take pity and bail them out.

Eva, with blanching features, braced herself for the worse. "Alright, what have they done?"

"Vergil hasn't done anything _too_ drastic. Most of his problems seem to stem from how knowledgeable he is and how quickly he learns. I feel that having him moved to a more advanced class might be beneficial to his education. He keeps interrupting and picking holes in my lessons."

"How do you mean?"

"He doesn't like how I have to simplify things for most of the class to understand and so sometimes takes it upon himself to attempt to rectify this, also, I cannot have the lessons progressing as fast as he would like because the other children cannot keep up that pace and still take it all in. All of this adds up to him becoming quite frustrated and snappish...it gives him a habit of taking out that stress on school property and anyone who provokes him in the slightest. He tends to pick fights on Dante and Dante doesn't help as he keeps winding Vergil up and deliberately setting him off. The two of them, as you will know by the letters, are still notorious for instigating food fights in the dinner hall."

Eva nodded glumly. she remembered every school crest headed letter and every single gravy and custard stain her sons came home with...not to mention the mashed potato clinging to Dante's hair like the most stubborn of glues and the bits of chocolate pudding Vergil later found had worked its way into his shoes.

While Sparda sniggered to himself while recalling the very same memories, Mrs Dancy carried on with the meeting. "Dante, I'm afraid, is another matter entirely. On top of all the practical jokes he is still playing I have never, in all my years, seen a boy his age _flirt_ so much...I honestly despair sometimes."

Dante had the almost lecherous smile wiped off of his face by a solitary _look_ from his mother. Vergil made a disapproving tutting sound while his father went about trying to surreptitiously make a paper crane out of an extremely out-of-date buss pass he'd fished out of his jacket pocket.

"As well as that," Mrs Dancy proceeded, sliding a couple more reports out of a pile, "there's is the matter of the little protection racket he seems to have set up."

"I beg your pardon?" Eva exploded as Dante sank even further down his chair (which was quite an achievement seeing as how his backside had already been halfway off the seat).

"Perhaps that isn't the best way of explaining it. What he appears to be doing is providing protection from bullies and even picking pre-emptive fights with them for a price of sorts."

"Oh," Sparda mumbled absently while making a reverse fold, "I wondered where all those Yu-Gi-Oh cards were coming from."

But Mrs Dancy wasn't quite done yet. "The last thing I aught to bring up is the incident with the bathroom...you see...Dante decided that he wanted to do a little decorating by marking out a very large pattern on the ceiling in toilet paper." she then produced a photograph that a very astonished caretaker had snapped to prove to himself that he wasn't seeing things and that is wasn't a dream.

Eva and Sparda both stared at the shot of the intricate arcane design that had been plastered over every last inch of the boys' bathroom ceiling with wads of wet loo roll which he had thrown at it.

Sparda turned to Dante. "Wow! That must have taken _ages_! How did you get it so accurate?"

Eva gasped and elbowed him very roughly.

He rubbed his side and coughed. "Err...eh-hem...I mean, don't do it again." but he couldn't wipe off the lingering smile.

The meeting with Mrs Dancy soon wound to a close after the discussions about whether Vergil should be moved or not had been made. It was eventually decided that going up a year might be too much but a transference to a more quiet, dedicated and smaller class could be beneficial where the teacher would be able to help him and go into further detail while the rest of the class studiously got on with what they were set. They also hoped that separation from his brother would keep Dante focused on his schooling rather than where the next thrill was coming from.

They said their goodbyes and went on hope with the boys feeling relived about it all being over and Sparda nursing a very sore set of ribs as well as suffering Eva's wrath because of the procession of buss pass, sweet wrapper and paper animals that had ended up on Mrs Dancy's desk. It hadn't helped when he had tried to take a report card to make the elephant.

_End_

_Author's Note – Well…I tried…the imagination fairy doesn't seem to be paying me many visits anymore. But I'll carry on as I've got a couple or so more ideas floating in the back of my skull. I've started a Christmassy one but it's a lil bit early for that. I'll go back to the other idea's people have passed my way…like job seeking._

_Bye for now. Reviews always appreciated and thank you all! _


	7. Jackpot

Jackpot

"Mum," a damp Dante called as he wandered into the house during a water fight with his father and brother in the back garden, "can we get a dog?"

Eva looked up from the magazine on the table that she had been reading. "For the twentieth time this week; no."

"'kay." He replied, went into the kitchen to refill his super soaker and then rejoined the battle raging on the lawn.

Sparda was holding his ground well, seeing as how he was bigger, older and a trained warrior while Vergil was…well…drenched…he just didn't like using anything with a trigger but he wasn't about to let his brother best him.

The fight continued and eventually a very out of breath Sparda had to call a time out to refill his own water gun. As he moved over to the outside tap he could hear the whisperings of a conspiracy forming behind him as well as some slight rustling. By the time he was finished and had turned around his sons were nowhere in sight.

He judged that they had dived into the thick hedge that surrounded the boundaries of the garden. So they were trying for a little ambush attack, eh? Crawling around under cover, were they? Oh, Eva was just going to _loooove_ them when she saw the mud.

Standing with his back facing the house to get a sweeping view of all three sides of the hedge he waited for them to hop out…only to hear the scuffing of trainers behind him and a dual cry of "Jackpot!"

Whirling around he was caught by two super charged streams of water directly to the face. Dropping his gun in surprise he held up his hands and sank to his knees in defeat. "Mercy, alright you win. Take pity, I'm exhausted." And upon that statement he flopped back against the grass.

The brothers shared a high five but Dante's elation at their father's submission was short lived as Vergil shot him in the chest.

"Agh! Traitor!"

"I'm just being strategic."

"Eat this!"

"Not likely!"

"Stop dodging!"

Sparda sat up on his elbows and watched his son's duke out the victory between them. Trying to keep the two of them occupied was very tiring…maybe it was time he talked to Eva about getting them the pet they had been bugging both parents for recently.

-Later, During The Night-

"No." Eva said flatly, rolling over and turning her back on her husband and tucking herself more comfortably into bed.

Sparda, lying by her side, leaned over to try and look her in the eye. "Oh come on, think about it. It'll teach them some responsibility…and give me a break."

"Awww, is the big bad demon feeling his age?" she cooed, rolling back over and snuggling against him.

"Don't mock me when I'm being serious." He said grumpily, refusing to return the cuddle she was giving him.

Eva sighed. "Alright, I see your point but…a dog? Why not start them off with a goldfish or a hamster?"

"Hamsters barely last two years and you can't really pet a fish. Though I don't think that would stop them."

"Ok then; but I'm not clearing up after it."

Sparda smiled happily, wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. "You know it makes sense."

"Mmm…" she mumbled sleepily.

Planting a chaste kiss on her forehead they settled down to rest.

-One Week Later-

It was mid-day on a Saturday, meaning the twins had only just woken up from their video game marathon induced comas. Vergil was surfing the TV channels for some decent cartoons while Dante crammed another slice of golden syrup smothered toast into his mouth.

Eva sat at the table sipping a cup of coffee and watching him devour his tooth rotting breakfast before glancing at the clock. Sparda had gone out about an hour ago to go and get a paper. On a bad day that might take 15 minutes tops…so what was he up to?

Ten minutes on she was rather worried and wishing he had taken his mobile with him.

After another agonising ten minutes she heard his keys in the front door and then familiar footsteps. He wandered into the room wearing a smug grin with his paper under one arm while under the other was-

"Oh wow! A puppy!" Dante yelled, leaping from his chair and sprinting over closely followed by his brother.

"Oh dear god." Eva mumbled as she watched Sparda set the black furred puppy on the ground whereupon it was cuddled, stroked and patted to within an inch of its life. It looked something like a malamute or husky…more lupine than canine. "Where did you get it?"

Sparda turned to her with a sweet smile. "This old lady I talk to every so often had a husky that produced an unwanted litter. The pregnancy was a complete surprise. She needed to get rid of the pups as she's moving away in a couple of days. She was nice enough to give me one when I said I was looking for a pet."

"She just let you have it?"

"Well, yes. It…um…hasn't been immunised or castrated or anything…so…yeah...

She shook her head. "For some reason I can't bring myself to believe you."

Upon hearing this, the twins grabbed the puppy securely between them. "Please can we keep 'im? Please, please, please?" Dante wined.

"We'll look after him, we promise. Take him for walks and everything." Vergil added, ever the tactician. "Even clean up the poop."

Mumbling under her breath she gave in. "Alright, but just for a little while. A trial period. If after a couple of weeks it's been ok we can keep him for good. But if not then he's going to a shelter."

"Awww, but mum-"

"No 'but's, Dante. That's the deal, take it or leave it."

"Taking."

Eva then turned to her husband with an accusatory glare. "You'd better do dome shopping then hadn't you?"

He nodded. "Food, bowel, collar, I get the idea."

"I can't believe I agreed." She sighed, shaking her head as he went off to grab his car keys.

The boys encouraged the pup out into the garden where it had the ability to go as crazy as it liked without breaking anything. It was an energetic, enthusiastic animal that appreciated the space to run.

Dante was beaming. "This is so great. We finally bugged them into it! Oh yeah!"

Vergil smirked. They had planned and executed the 'pet plan' together with professional determination. "We have to name it…"

"Yeah, but what though? Hey, I know; call 'im Jackpot! He's our biggest victory after all."

Vergil agreed. "Yeah, cool. Maybe the first of many." Both boys had actually expected to have a minor war over the name. They couldn't help but laugh about being on the same wavelength for once in their lives.

Dante scooped up a fallen stick on the ground under the tree in one corner. With one swift over arm swing he tossed is across the garden. "Go fetch, boy."

Vergil sniggered. "He's probably too young to know what you want."

But Jackpot did seem to know how to play fetch…and got rather excited about it. After seeing the stick twirl through the air he went racing after it and burst into flames! Jackpot doubled in size in a second and its soft coal coloured fur was replaced with blazing black and red fire.

Jackpot picked up the stick delicately in its mouth and trotted back to its new masters where he set it on the ground in front of them, leaving scorched paw prints on the grass as he went. He sat down obediently and waited for the stick to be tossed again, blazing tail sweeping back and forth happily behind it and forked tongue lolling out of its mouth, filled with big sharp teeth.

Vergil and Dante gaped.

Jackpot yapped cutely at them and as quick as they had come the flames were gone, leaving him looking like a normal puppy again, piercing merle eyes staring lovingly at the humans before him.

"Uh, Dante…"

"Yeah, Verge?"

"Dad lied about where he got him, didn't he."

"Uh…yup."

"Are we going to tell mum that dad brought home a hellhound?"

"Uh…nope."

"Didn't think so." Vergil said, and picked up the charred stick.

_End_

_Author's Note – I may well do a second part to this…there's so much more I could do with lil Jackpot, the hellpuppy._

_Yay! 50 plus reviews party! Woo-hoo! Cake and ice cream for all! Hell, you can have cookies too! You're wonderful, thank you so much!_

_Chicken-chan is in the process of drawing Jackpot; I'll put a link to it on the next chapter._

_Anyway, here are some replies:_

darkshadowgirl – _I love the babysitter idea! Mwahahaha. (Scheming already)_

SaiyAsianMaki - _Yes, I'm going to do a Halloween one…I'm doing it right now…_

Bustahead – _Wow…thatsa lotta reviews in one go. Oooh, I feel praised. Be expecting an e-mail soon as I am very curious to hear your ideas…I just have to convince Yahoo to let me log in._

_I shall go for now and I hope to see you soon._


	8. Bless You

Bless You

The boys were in school and detesting every last second of it and Eva had just come home from a few errands she had needed to run. Sparda had been asleep when she had left and she expected him to be up and awake by now, but upon her return she found that this was not the case in the slightest.

She called out his name but upon hearing no reply and finding no sign of his presence downstairs she ventured upwards in search of him. She reached the landing just in time to see him toddle out of the bathroom wrapped up in a duvet and dressed only in a t-shirt and boxer shorts. He waddled into the bedroom, over to the bed and flopped down; curling himself up so that all could be seen on the bed was a large hump of covers with a wild tuft of bright white hair sticking out of one end.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked, crossing over to the lump on the bed.

The tuft of hair twirled as he shook his head, still snuggled up in the warmth of his eider down and cotton cocoon. "Doe….." a small muffled word was produced.

"Pardon?"

His head wriggled out. His nose was bright red and sore, his eyes dark and his skin pasty… "I'b dot well…" he mumbled.

"But you've never had so much as a runny nose before…ever. I though that being a devil meant you couldn't get colds." She laid a hand on his forehead: it was burning hot. "And you were fine yesterday."

He tried to sniff but his nose was far to blocked to comply. Closing his eyes he curled the duvet tightly around him. "I dunno…did feel a bit off yesterday but I didn't say anyfig…ohhhh…my _head_."

It seemed that being a devil did indeed protect him from most of the ailments a human may suffer. Most colds brushed straight over him without leaving so much as a tickly throat. However, it would also seem that this meant the only illnesses he could suffer would be the very worst of flu's that may well leave him bedridden for a week with a pounding migraine and having to leave the bathroom door open because he was permanently nauseous. It was a small blessing that he didn't have diarrhoea as well.

Eva began to stroke his hair comfortingly. "Can I get you anything?"

"Ub….yeah….can I hab some painkillers?..." he sniffed. "Nurofen, morphine, horse tranquilisers, a friggin' shotgun…_anyfig_ to stob duh headache." He whimpered and buried his head back in the covers.

"Of course." She said kindly and was about to go and get him some paracetamol when he sneezed very violently, producing a dark flash of red light and she was left staring at him in all his demonic glory.

He turned over, pillow impaled on one curled horn "Damn it." He mumbled. "Sowry."

"Uh…oh dear…I don't think a paracetamol is going to sort this…"

Sparda sneezed again and this time all of the lights in the house lit up and blew out. He groaned loudly and flopped back. He was ill and even though the largest portion of his power had long since been sealed away…he didn't have much control over things when his body was going haywire with a virus. The unsolicited expenditure of devil energies only made him feel worse.

-Later That Day-

The boys were delivered home by their kindly neighbour Barbara as requested by Eva on the phone as she was tending to her poorly husband and couldn't pick them up. When the twins were inside and Barbara was, thankfully, returning next door they saw their mother chasing something around the house that looked like a clear version of 'Flubber'…it was the result of Sparda's sneeze into a glass of water.

"What's going on?" Vergil yelped as the thing shot up trouser leg and out of the collar of his shirt. "Eagh!"

"You're father is ill," She said, smacking the thing with a hardback encyclopaedia, "and under quarantine."

The boy's looked at each other with a worried expression.

Another loud sneeze rumbled through the house, followed by the water-thing exploding with a sad squeak all over the carpet, a flock of passing pigeons falling down dead around the house and a muffled cry of "Sowry!"

"This had better be over soon." Eva sighed, while going off to get a mop.

_End_

_Author's Note – Oooh, this is a short one…I'm sorry…it seemed longer to me when I was typing it but now it's ready to post it seems to have shrunk. Well I'm already working on the next one. Hope you're all still reading and enjoying this because it's still fun to write. Do not fret! There will be more Jackpot! I just needed to get this out of my head before I ploughed on with the hellpuppy…he'll be back soon. Thank you all again for the reviews; you have no idea how happy they make me…well…ok…maybe you do, but that's not going to stop me saying it hahahaha! Eh-hem._

Meirelle - _No, they are in no particular order, but I would like to keep Growing Pains focused on the family when the boys are quite young…maybe I could do a separate fic with them in high school._

BiOhAzArD – _C-chan says Sparda should hire a demonic babysitter after all of the human ones fail miserably._

_P.S to all - no word on the Jackpot picture yet, so when I know you'll know. Maybe next post._


	9. Cheater

Cheater

Sparda had never really gotten the hang of video games. He could just about understand the concept of them but when it actually came to playing the blasted things he was completely useless. Not only that, but he did so love to pick holes in things and point out how half of what the characters on screen were doing was completely impossible. He would go on about how long it took to slash at things to take them down while in the real world one small cut in just the right place would have them dead within a few seconds. And why didn't people bleed, he wondered, why didn't the little health indicator keep falling as they wore out through injury and exhaustion? And it was at this point Dante and/or Vergil would tell him to be quiet or leave the room because he was distracting them. He would then complain that the games were painting an incorrect picture of the truth about combat and warfare and that his boys should take no heed of them…and would then indignantly retreat to the garden with a book to read.

But he couldn't stay away from the games console forever, as it was one of the things his boys' loved to play on and he did like joining in their games. A good few times they had asked him to join in with them and he agreed only to fail miserably the second he picked up the controller. He refused to play sometimes and they would call him a sore loser.

Today it was Dante alone playing Dead or Alive 2, thumbs dancing over the buttons in such a way as to cause his character to fly about the screen in a flurry of physically unrepeatable moves that trounced his computer controlled opponent in ten seconds flat.

"Winner!" the game told him in an excited electronic voice and he chuckled in response.

He looked around and spotted his father leaning on the doorframe and watching him. "Wanna play?" he asked.

"Alright." He conceded after a long pause for thought. Unbeknownst to his cocky son, Sparda had been playing on the console the previous night and had worked out a way that he could win for sure. '_Hahaha, now we'll see who's the sore looser_' he sniggered to himself.

He sat down on the floor cross legged in front of the TV and picked up the second controller. The two of them went about the process of selecting their characters and choosing the arena and then allowing the match to load.

"You're gonna lose so bad." Dante said with a smile and shake of his head.

"Mmm." Sparda mumbled, as if he wasn't actually paying any attention at all.

Looking over Dante could see that his father seemed somewhat distant…as if he was looking through the TV rather than at it. Ha! This was going to be so easy! His dad wasn't even paying attention!

"Get Ready!" the game said. "Fight!"

Wanting to show off Dante rapidly pressed the code required for a backbreaking manoeuvre that no one had ever been able to avoid before. He grinned expecting to see a huge dent in his father's life gauge but…

The opposing character flipped out of the way then came in for the attack with a move Dante had never seen that character do before, hurling his little man across the screen and where the wall provided a hard landing.

"How did you…" Dante gaped, mashing the buttons on his controller to get his character up again.

For once in his life Dante was finding it hard to hold his ground on this game which he was a pro at because his father was calmly pulling off moves that his character didn't even have. There were attacks and defensive positions that Dante had never seen in any game before, let alone this one.

Glancing over at his father again he noticed that he wasn't actually pushing any buttons even though his character was causing chaos on the screen…there was a glassy look in his eyes and a vague smile on his lips.

Dante finally knew what was going on and threw the controller on the floor in annoyance. "Mum! Dad's cheating! He's possessed the PS2! Make 'im stop!"

End

_Author's Note – (crawls into a corner and huddles up into a protective ball) I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! I know this is late and short and it was supposed to be Jackpot 2 but he's being uncooperative and so I had to whip this up instead. Pleasedon'tkillme! Be patient for a little while longer…I'm nearly there…and the Halloween one is giving me more trouble than expected but I promise that they will both be ready soon._

_Please take muffins and not my life, I need it to liiiiiive!_

GryronInferno46 – _Oooh, school trip…I must think more on that subject. Thank you for the review and the idea…and if you have any more you are willing to throw my way than please do._

Bustahead – _Calpol! Brilliant! I never thought of that! I was considering doing a second half to Bless You…such as the effects of medicine on a devil and more of his effects on the surrounding environment. Entertainment for hours, yay!_

_As for everyone else who reviewed, thank you so much! You make writing this thing all worthwhile. I would have done a reply like those two (points to above replies) for you all but I was in a rush to post this._

_I will go now and apply myself fully to Jackpot 2, so for now goodbye and I hope to see you at the next update._


	10. Samhain

Samhain

There were few days when a demon could be himself and not be persecuted for it…and all hallows eve was one of them.

Sparda hated how commercial the festival had become…remembering the old days when Samhain had all been about the fact that it was the night when the material world joined with the world of the dead, when the spirits of the dead and those who were yet to be born would walk among the living...when the bonds between worlds were either weakened or broken. It was just like what had happened to Christmas and all of the other big festivals; even Easter and St Valentines Day…it was almost sad.

Kneeling on a chair with his elbows on the windowsill and head cradled in his hands, he watched all of the children and their escorts going about the business of threatening people into giving them chocolate and sweets. Trick or treat…it was just a pleasant way to teach the youngsters to take advantage of every poor sap who let them.

He sighed to himself and began pointing out each individual he spotted. "Child, child, child, teenager pretending to be a child, child, child, demon, child." And his train of thought and speak continued in much the same pattern for a good whole five minutes…occasionally punctuated by an exclamation when he recognised one of the demons. "Child, child, how did _you_ get out? Child, teen, child, hope he didn't see me, child…"

Finally, he was distracted by his sons' tugging on the back of his shirt.

"Dad!" Dante yelled. "You're not even dressed!"

Sparda turned around and looked at his two young boys were all ready to go out trick or treating. Eva usually took them, but she had a very bad cold and so he had had no option but to take them himself…unless he wanted to earn their hatred for the rest of his life.

Dante had decided to be a skeleton, with the usual black suit with bones printed on it and Eva had crawled out of bed long enough to paint his face for him. The look was somewhat ruined, however, by the cowboy style holsters he was wearing to carry his two cans of silly string…not to mention the fact that he seemed to be dragging Rebellion along with him.

"You can't take the sword with you." Sparda said flatly.

"Why not? No one has to know it's real."

"If I let you take it I will never hear the last of it from your mother. Leave it here."

"O-kay." Dante moaned and promptly dumped the blade on the floor.

"I told you so." Vergil taunted beside him with a sly grin. He was dressed in a neat 'bloodstained' Victorian style suit, face made up to make him appear drawn and sleepless.

"Ready to go?" Sparda asked, bust his question was met with harsh stares from both of his sons.

"_We_ are," said Vergil, "But you're not."

"Yeah ,dad, you gotta dress up on Halloween. Even Jackpot's got a costume!" He demanded and pointed at the resident hellhound which sported a pair of fetching purple bat wings on a harness. He was scratching at them furiously whenever no one was looking in an attempt to get them off. "Mum was gonna be a vampire this year, y'know."

"Hmm…" Sparda hummed to himself and tapped his chin. "Stay here, I'll be right back"

Racing up the stairs and into the bedroom, he wrenched open the door of his wardrobe (which was predominantly filled with weapons) and pulled a case of sorts out of the bottom.

Eva, from the bed, smiled. "I knew you'd think of something."

He unzipped the case and looked inside. "I just hope that it doesn't fall apart on me…I've had it for a _very_ long time now."

"If it's survived all these years than it'll survive tonight."

Sparda sighed, received a wink from his wife and got changed.

-A Few Minutes Later-

Sparda emerged back downstairs, dressed now in the purple suit that he'd thought he would never wear again…from the skull on his cravat and the (bloody stupid) monocle right down to the pinkish red stones on his polished leather shoes (Yay, LDK bonus outfit!). He had one of the may large swords in his possession strapped to his back as there was no way he was going out on a night like this without protection. On Halloween he usually patrolled the streets like a guardian to fend off demonic attack…but that would be impossible now. He'd just have to do what he could.

Vergil nodded approvingly while Dante gave him two thumbs up. "Dunno what you're supposed to be but you look pretty ok." He then paused with thoughtful expression. "Um…one problem."

"What is it?" Sparda asked, giving himself the once over. "Did I leave my fly undone?"

Dante sniggered. "Nah, not that…it's just…you're a light bulb."

Vergil nodded in agreement. Ever since their father had stepped into the room, the place had gotten that little bit brighter.

Sparda frowned and then clicked his fingers as he realised what it was that was giving him such a pleasant glow. Dipping one hand into a pocket he yanked out a chunk of luminite. "I wondered where I'd left that." He said, and dumped it on the table. He then proceeded to pat his pockets down and relieve himself of various other items, like green and purple star shaped stones and golden yellow stones that had tormented faces carved into them.

"What are they?" Vergil asked.

"Oh, just things…you know…devil things… you two can have them if you want them, there's enough to share out evenly. You never know…they might come in handy one day."

The boys smiled and nodded, already separating the objects into piles for when they got back.

"So, can we go now?"

Sparda groaned quietly and smoothed back his hair with one hand. It was time to get going.

Compared to other children's costumes, Vergil seemed quite plain. When questioned as to just whom he was he would inform them that he was Frankenstein. Upon hearing his response most people would politely laugh and ask him why he didn't have bolts in his neck and wasn't green. Vergil would then adopt a haughty tone of annoyed superiority and explain that the monster never had a name and was most certainly not green and that he had come dressed as Victor Frankenstein, the monster's creator. And then, just to add insult to injury, he would query as to why they did not know this…and Dante would attempt to pretend that he and Vergil were not related.

Jackpot was so excited Sparda was sure that he was going to have an 'accident' of the hot and flamey kind but the boys were enjoying themselves and it wasn't as dangerous a night as he had expected it to be. Of all the demons he had seen or sensed around the place, none seemed to have much in the way of malicious intent but that could well be because they had seen a certain Legendary Dark Knight, decked out just a they remembered him, tooled up with a vicious looking blade and a stern expression…not to mention being tailed by an excitable but loyal looking hellhound (even if it was a puppy it was not to be taken lightly). And not only that, but he had his beloved boys with him; so he would be extra vigilant…and vindictive if it came down to a confrontation.

Somewhere along the routes around the streets, Dante managed to get his hands on some eggs to threaten people with and they nearly lost Jackpot when he smelt that someone nearby had decided it was a nice night for a late barbeque.

Three stolen sausages later, they got their puppy back and Sparda was soon being used as the pack horse to carry all of their ill gotten gains. Trees and doors about the places of people whom had been so foolish as to deny the twins their treats now sported egged out symbols which Sparda had to hurriedly wipe off or mess up before they called up any unholy terrors…either that or they had Zorro style 'D's and 'V's marked out in silly string.

About half way through their outing, when they were receiving treats from a kindly old lady in a nearby street, Jackpot decide to stay by the gate and attempt to scratch his winged harness off again. It finally got to much for him and when he was certain all three of his masters were occupied with the strange lady he decided to use the most certain method of getting rid of the annoying bits of fabric and wire attached to his back.

It was Sparda who first smelt the molten plastic and smoke that indicated that Jackpot had sparked up but when he snapped his head around to where the young dog was still sitting, all that gave away what he had done was the rising dark cloud of smoke that was already beginning to dissipate. Jackpot was panting happily, tail wagging furiously and the entire harness had been reduced to dusty marks and a few melted smears on his coat.

"Oh no…" Sparda whimpered and hoped that no one else in the street had noticed, and then all but dragged the twins away. "I think it's just about time we started to wind all of this up."

"Aww…but dad!" Dante whinged.

In response to this all his father did was point at the dog which yapped contently and shook the soot off.

Both boys nodded in agreement and decided that it _was_ the right time to wander on home…maybe making a few last stops along the way.

"Hey look, dad." Dante said as they turned back into their own street, pointing at something.

Sparda looked to where his son was indicating. There was a large man with sunken features and pallid skin striding purposefully towards their house with two huge white wolf-like dogs padding beside him. The stranger had an enormous blue and white sword strapped to his back.

Sparda froze. "_You!_" he hissed, mainly to himself.

"Dad?"

"You stay right here," he ordered the two of them, "and don't hesitate to yell if anything or anyone you don't recognise comes your way."

Vergil and Dante's Halloween giddiness faded a little; their father was using his serious voice. "Sure…don't worry, we'll be fine. And we've got Jackpot."

-

The stranger noticed the twins down the street just as he got to the front gate of the house he had been headed for…he and his companions had been so focused on what they had intended to do that they had not even noticed.

They boys were playing with a black puppy and munching on candy quite happily but their father was no where to be seen.

Huffing to himself, he decided the kids could wait; he had bigger snowy haired fish to fry. He chuckled at the thought of the cruel plans he had for Sparda and his family. It had taken him a long time to gather enough power to get him out of the underworld and in human form. Tonight was the only one he could do this in. When the sun rose up he would be banished back from whence he came, when the boundaries were solid again.

"Hey, Bolverk!" he suddenly heard an awfully familiar voice cry out behind him, and as he turned he saw it was far to late to dodge the heavy blade already in the process of being swung at him. "Trick or treat!"

_End_

_Author's Note – Oh, I had so many plans for this chapter…I had so much written down on paper…and then I lost it all. I think it got recycled. Well, this is as much as I could get together from bits and pieces in my head. Hope its ok. Next update will be Jackpot 2 at long last. I guess the pics will be done in time for that one…_

Arileo – _A sequel to Bless You, huh? I'll put some thought into it. There was more I could have done with it but I wanted to keep it short...so…yeah…we'll see. Thanks for reviewing!_

Inujak – _Aye aye, captain! (Salutes too hard and knocks self out)_

BiOhAzArD – _Yeah…I wish I could possess the PS2, it would make life so much easier – 'why must I go the long way through the monster infested forest to find the abandoned building with the boss in it to get a key for the door! Just climb over the goddamn wall!'_

GryronInferno46 – _Like the idea…stay tuned for Jackpot 2. Thanks for the review!_

Meirelle – _E bay! Brilliant! Oh yes, I am definitely looking into that one. Thanks for the idea and the review!_

Bustahead – _(points upwards) that's what happens when Bolverk comes to visit. He goes home with a really big booboo. Thankee for reviewing._

Darkshadowgirl – _Jackpot will be back on the next update in about a week or so, most likely at the weekend. Just hold on a little longer. Yay, reviews! Thank you!_

And to everyone else who reviewed_ – huge mega uber thanks you! With hugs!_


	11. Walkies: Jackpot 2

Walkies: Jackpot 2

It was amazing just how long the male members of the family were managing to keep the truth about Jackpot secret from Eva; she still had no idea that she was sharing the house with a young hellhound. Some things were a little difficult to explain away…like the scorched patterns on the grass…but somehow Sparda always managed to pass it off as a demonic accident on his part, shouldering the blame himself, or would claim it to be the result of an attack.

It all seemed to work and Eva was none the wiser. Luck was most certainly on their side for now but it was debateable as to how long that would last for.

Currently Vergil was attempting to do his homework while Dante was trying to stop him; one of his most loved pastimes.

"What's that?" Dante asked, half sprawled over the table and pointing at the page his brother was working on.

"You've asked me three times already." Vergil replied, swatting the hand away so that he could continue.

"Yeah, but now I'm asking again."

"Did you forget already?"

"No, I just like bugging ya."

"Do you want me to hit you?"

"Not really."

"Well shut up then!"

"Ooooh, touchy today."

Vergil glared and it was only the arrival of their father in the room which prevented an all out war being raged over the dinner table. "Have you boys seen Jackpot?" he asked them.

"He's been bouncing around the house all morning." Vergil informed him.

"I know; he needs to be walked." With this statement Sparda held up the lead he was holding. "You'd think a puppy with that much energy would want to leave the house but when I went near him he took of like a rocket; flames and all."

"Did mum see!" Dante demanded to know.

"No, but we have to get him out and calm before she does."

"Good plan, batman." Dante said, hopping off the table and heading for the patio doors. "He's probably killing bushes in the garden. He likes doing that when he's hyper."

They all finally found the puppy doing exactly what Dante had predicted he would be doing. His head was buried in a leafy bush so little more than its backside with a furiously wagging tail could be seen sticking out. He was growling and tugging at one of the low thick branches, trying to snap it off so that he could take it to one of his masters in the hope they would play fetch with him. The bushes were becoming rather sparse as he kept raiding them for new toys when the old ones were reduced to cinders. They'd never dared to give him any of those plastic squeaky things.

Sparda made sure that his footsteps were heavy and deliberate so as not to spook Jackpot, and then leaned into the bush to extract both the hell puppy and the stick it was so desperate for. He quickly attached the lead to Jackpot's collar and then set him on the ground again. As soon as the puppy heard the snap of the clip he was very eager to go…suddenly realising what was about to happen, nothing short of the apocalypse itself would get between him and the park. There wasn't a lot that even a legendary devil could do with Jackpot tugging on the lead…it was like trying to stop a bulldozer.

"Get the coats!" he yelled as the young dog dragged him away at an impressive pace.

The twins snickered to themselves and then went on to do as requested and tell Eva where they were all going before finally catching up with their father and pet half way down the road.

Jackpot was calmer now that he was outside; not so desperate to get away from the confines of the house and garden. Anyone watching Sparda being pulled bodily down the street would have thought the poor animal hadn't been walked in a week, even though in truth this was just the first of the two or three walks he got every day (though, admittedly, they were not all to the park). But he was obviously happy; his tail was wagging so hard that his entire backside was moving too, which gave him an odd and humorous walk.

Nothing much really happened that could be considered out of the ordinary when they got to the park. The twins had fun with the other kids there on the swings and slides and climbing frames as well as with their dog and it seemed that Jackpot was being on his very best behaviour. He wasn't growling and yapping at every other person and animal there and the only noteworthy thing he had decided to do thus far was to put the fear of Mundus into a squirrel by barking out a small lick of flame before chasing it up a tree, which people ensured themselves that they had not seen.

All in all it was relatively uneventful…until they were just about ready to leave…

Sparda was just extracting the lead from out of one pocket of his trench coat to rein the puppy in again when Jackpot bounded off to foolishly try and show an Alsatian who was boss.

It was a miracle that the Alsatian's owner had fallen asleep on a park bench and no one else was paying attention when the big dog got annoyed after trying repeatedly to ignore and get away from the puppy and made as if to bite him…not really intending to but it was a very close warning. Jackpot's immediate reaction was, of course, to spark up and hell flames leapt towards the clouds while a menacing growl echoed deep from within the flaming mass which sent the dog yelping and running. In an instinct reaction Sparda all but flew over, wrenched off his coat and dived on Jackpot before he could give chase…hoping against hope that the now smothered puppy would get the idea and put the flames away rather than making them stronger to burn away what was now tightly surrounding him.

Upon the guttural cry of "Stop!" from his tallest master Jackpot obediently extinguished himself and the thick smoke now rising from under the half charred coat confirmed this.

The twins sprinted over in time to see Sparda release the hell hound who looked distinctly pleased with himself. They noted the blackened, semi destroyed fabric and the wide circle of smoking ash and embers that was once part of the grass.

"Aw man," Dante whined, "that was your favourite too."

Sparda nodded and gathered up the remains of his coat. "Let's just get home."

On the way home there were two more incidents…one where Jackpot challenged a black tom cat and was spanked around the face for his trouble which he, strangely, did nothing about; merely whimpering and sulking off behind Sparda's leg (thus the devil assumed that during Jackpot's time in the underworld he had suffered the wrath of a Shadow). And then there was the incident with the lamppost. Feeling territorial because of the German Shepherd he had left behind to cower with his owner, Jackpot decided to really leave his mark and when he cocked his leg there was an ominous hissing, bubbling sound…then the lamppost toppled, crashing down on top of a car. The boys had just enough time to notice the melted hole near the base of the fallen post before being scooped up in the arms of their father and carried very rapidly back home with their pet obediently following behind with an unmistakably smug grin.

Back home, Jackpot went to find a place to have a good scratch while his masters flopped down into their respective favourite chairs or parts of the sofa.

"All in all," Sparda said with a sigh, "that went better than expected."

_End_

_Author's Note – Wow, sorry this one's a tad late and so…odd…I got caught up reading Thud, and Bonfire Night got in the way. I didn't go anywhere but my bedroom has a great view and I saw plenty of displays from the comfort of my windowsill. One of these days Eva is going to have to find out about Jackpot. Ah, what to do next? So many ideas…ho hum. Ooh, replies –_

Morwen (Devils that Cry) – _If no one every grumbled nothing would ever improve. Grumble away to your hearts content, I know I do. Thank you for the review and I'm glad there's someone else out there who knows Samhain. Guess it's just because I'm English I really just don't like 'Halloween'. Never been trick or treating in my entire life._

Ri2 – _hello again, and thank you again! Glad you like Bolverk…I may throw some more game characters in there at some point…_

GryronInferno46 – _No, I'm not Irish…sorry, I'm English. But yeah, Samhain is an Irish word. Here's some trivia for you; it comes from the Old Irish 'samain, samuin, samfuin' referring to 1st November (lathe na samna "samhain day") there was a festival to mark the beginning of winter, so All Souls Day and what we now call Halloween are continued elements of it. If you want more info, as it is very confusing and long, go to Wikipedia and look up Samhain. Thanks for reviewing!_

BiOhAzArD - _Ello. My dad's weapon of choice would have been the pressure washer…if only the pipe would stay on the tap…sigh…_

Kid-author – _Umm…Sparda just kinda went as himself…he had a big sword, so no one questioned him about it. Thanks for the review!_

Bustahead – _crazed fangirls turn up on Sparda's doorstep…oh dear…I think they would be seen rapidly running away with Eva and a shotgun close behind. I doubt it'll happen in this fic but it would be fun one-shot._

Meirelle – _Yay for reviews! Thankee!_

Kerrianne Harrington – _Yay, you're back!_ _Thank you for reviewing againand I'mglad you stilllike it._

Splendid Shadows – _Thank you. I hope to keep this going for as long as people are interested…oh my poor brain…_

_All reviewers get muffins today! (I ran out of cookies) Hope to see you again next update! Ta ta! And thank you all!_


	12. In the Dark

In the Dark

Sparda and Eva sat on the sofa watching TV while Dante and Vergil watched the natural wonder outside.

The twins were standing on chairs with their heads poked underneath the drawn curtains. It was winter and as such the darkness had fallen earlier…which gave the perfect blackened conditions for an impressive thunderstorm.

The booming drum rolls that could be felt echoing in their chest were rapidly followed by the accompanying light display of the erratic lightning flashes. If they could be bothered to remember what their mother had told them they would know that this meant that the centre of the storm was very close to them.

Very close…

So close, in fact, that one wild electric bolt leapt down from the sky like a striking snake and earthed in such a way as to meet up with the tame electricity that kept the entire street running. In short, there was a blackout.

As everything electric in the house snapped off the boys yelped in surprise while Eva gasped and Sparda huffed…he'd been enjoying the programme in relative peace and quite and now this had to happen. It would be ages before they would re-run it.

"Aww man." Dante grumbled. "This stinks."

"Wasn't me." Vergil hurriedly retorted.

"I meant that this is bad." Dante corrected him. "The lights have gone out…bad…it stinks, bites, is rubbish and sucks."

At this point they were briefly outlined by another flash of lightning leaving a brief after image in the eyeballs of their parents. They all made themselves content to wait for the lights to come back on.

Five whole minutes passed and it seemed that no one in the power company was doing them any favours and the darkness prevailed...unfortunately no-one could remember if there were any torches in the house, let alone where they would be if they had any, thus they could only sit back and wait some more. After another minute or two the sound of Dante hopping off his chair could be heard.

"Mum, can I get a can of coke?"

"Of course."

"Thanks." His gratitude was followed by his footsteps heading for the kitchen from which there came the sound of the now silent fridge opening and closing…then the hissing of the can being opened which was then punctuated with a 'thunk' as the can hit the floor and a scream from the boy who had been holding it.

Sparda leapt to his feet without a second thought, jumped over the sofa and raced to where the sound had originated, he was met by his son coming the other way who careened into him.

"There's something in there!" the boy yelped, face briefly lit up with a flash of pale blue that showed the fear in his eyes.

The Dark Knight padded into the kitchen but could find nothing there and could feel no presence of any kind, no hint of demonic energy…not even the energy of a roach which may have somehow passed Eva's cleanliness. "Dante, the kitchen it empty. Apart from us, the house is empty."

"No…there was something there." He wined, pointing into the room and bouncing on his toes. "I felt something…something touched me! I swear!"

"Dante, there isn't-" but his sentence got no further as his near hysterical son interrupted.

"There's something in the dark!"

Vergil, still in the living room began to laugh heartily. "Dante's scared of the dark! Hahahahaha!"

"I'm not!" Dante yelled. "It's what's in the dark! There's something there!"

Vergil continued to chuckle with glee even when Eva scolded him for doing so.

Frustrated and afraid, Dante began to cry. "Don't laugh at me! Shut up!"

"Make me!"

Sparda took Dante's hand and roared at Vergil to cease his mocking and apologise. The stern expression illuminated by lightning and heralded by thunder crashes caught Vergil's attention instantly; he stopped sniggering, said he was sorry and was then sent to bed early without the usual mug of hot chocolate.

A couple of minutes later, the power was back on and Dante was calm. And when it was time for bed everything went as normal…until the light was turned off.

Eva and Sparda heard him knock tentatively on their door before entering, dragging Rebellion behind him and telling them that he could hear things in the shadows.

In the end Dante fell asleep in his own bed…in his father's lap.

This nyctophobia lasted all of one night as Dante soon came to realise that he could beat up anything that came out of the darkness. Regardless of this Vergil loved to tease him about it but Dante would always remind his dear brother of how he had been seen curled up with his oldest teddy bear which was usually buried at the very bottom of the ottoman while Dante had gone for his sword.

_End_

_Author's Note – Lookee…a link to my dear Chicken-Chans pic of lil Jackpot Don't forget to replace the things in brackets with the actual symbols…I wish FF would just upload links properly rather than making you type them out all arse about face. Err…it was actually ready about a week ago but I clean forgot to post the link…don't hit meeeee!_

www (dot) deviantart (dot) com (slash) view (slash) 24669844

_Anyway…this chapter was another 'awww' moment rather than a funny…I seem to be running low on humour at the moment. I'll try to rectify this with the next chapter…over the next few weeks I'm going to try and write chapters to the suggestions you have all been giving me so…yeah…we'll see how it goes._

_100+ REVIEWS PARTY! GO CRAZY, WOOOO! Can you tell I'm happy? Today you all get cookies, muffins, ice-cream and cake! Me so happyyyyy! _

Bustahead – _Another perfect suggestion…ah…a plot is already brewing. Thank you!_

Ri2 – _I wish I knew what to say…umm…wow…sorry to hear about your dog…but thank you for reviewing._

Mor – _Hurrah for England. We should make it our mission to introduce our sleepy little island to the wonders of fanfiction. Thank you for the review and I'm glad I managed to improve your day._

GryronInferno46 – _A wedding on Sparda's side? Scary thought (shudder) and poor Eva too! I think I might do a wedding one but I'll keep it on Eva's side…seeing as how the underworld is out of bounds and I think Sparda would have been disowned for what he did. We have cookies today; you're threat worked. Thankee for reviewing again._

Kid-Author – _Muchos thanks for review. You can have cookies but not Jackpot; I'm still using him…but I'm sure the rest of the litter is around somewhere (sees ball of flames shoot past) there, see…_

Meirelle – _Glad you liked it. Thank you. I can only wonder how many people in their street have had strange problems since they arrived…_

Splendid Shadows – _Thankee (grins) wow…you're dog must be one hell of a handful if she's like Jackpot. Good things she's got no flames or you'd spend a fortune in carpets._

Kerrianne Harrington – _Thank you. I have no dog and no kitten…what I do have, however, is a very large cat. His name is Greebo and he is a greedy, grumpy old man. But I love him anyway._

BiOhAzArD – _I hate clowns…clowns_ _are evil…clowns are scary…clowns are one of my all time greatest fears along with porcelain/china dolls and being buried alive…Sparda should kill the clowns…oooh…look at that…chapter plot._


	13. Fearless?

Fearless…?

_Thanks to Bustahead for the idea._

Some time around three o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon during the school holiday, Vergil was racking up a Sonic high score and Dante was attempting to wrestle his second favourite t-shirt from the jaws of their pet hellhound.

"C'mon…give it over!" Dante grunted, sitting on the floor and jamming one foot against the sofa for leverage.

"He's not going to." Vergil told him. "Let go or you're going to rip it."

"Don't care…grrr…it's the principal of the thingggrrrrrrr…give it…"

"The seams are already going." Vergil warned.

"…don't…care…giveitbackalready!"

"Cut it out will you; you're distracting me and I'm this close to beating your high score."

"You'll never beat that score…it took me forever to get it…cut it out and give it back!...I faked being sick so I could get the day off to get that score…"

"Freak."

"Like you can talk when you've been trying to beat it all break. Yeee-esss! I got it! Haha! Aww man…that's one hell of a hole…"

"I told you so."

Dante sighed and held his second favourite t-shirt out while staring mournfully at the large hole now gracing the centre of it, not to mention the other rips and the vast quantities of dog spit.

"Mum's not going to be able to stitch that one." Vergil mumbled. "Guess you could make patches out of it."

Dante mumbled something indistinct and crossed his arms, shuffling over to sit just behind his brother so he could annoy him by breathing down his neck and watching his game over his shoulder. Just as planned, it put him off so much that he screwed up the game and soon ended up loosing his last life…falling just short of Dante's prized score.

"Dammit."

"Bad luck, bro."

"Shut up, you still can't top my points on Mario."

"Like I care about Mario when I can kick your ass at every other game we have."

"Only because you never let me get a look in."

After a couple more minutes of half hearted arguing and Dante nearly loosing his t-shirt all over again, they both decided that the day would be more fun for both of them if they could go and pester their father. They found him slouched comfortably in a garden chair with his arms crossed and chin resting on his chest which rose and fell in the steady rhythm of a man happily asleep in the sunshine. The boys shared a sly nod of agreement and proceeded to sneak up on him. With both of them poised to pounce on either side they waited a moment for complete silence to settle and then both jumped on him, roaring and digging at his sides with questing fingers in the hope of finding a ticklish spot.

Sparda woke with a start, practically leaping from his chair and automatically dropping into a fighter's crouch, scanning the area for threats. He spotted only his boys and relaxed.

"Never do that again." He told them, flopping back down into the recliner.

"Hahaha! We scared you!" Dante sniggered.

"Don't be daft." Sparda sniffed. "You just woke me up unexpectedly, that's all."  
Vergil considered this and realised that this was a perfect opportunity to gather some fresh ammo for when April Fools day rolled around. "So what are you scared of?"

Sparda looked over to him. "Nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing at all." He confirmed.

"Liar, everyone is scared of something."

He supposed that he could have told them, in all honesty, that his greatest fear was loosing his family but that was a grown-up thing and not something that his son's were interested in. So instead he told them. "Well,_ I'm_ not."

"I bet," said Dante thoughtfully, "that you're afraid of something really stupid. Y'know, like how superheroes can do all this cool stuff and get through really scary things but then have this really dumb weakness."

"Nope." Sparda said with a smile. "But…you're mum can be scary sometimes."

All three shared a chuckle of agreement.

"Aw, c'mon dad; tell us what you're scared of." Dante whinged convinced that if he was this intent on not telling them then it _must _be something worth knowing.

"No, now go away and…I don't know…play those videogames or something. I was in the middle of a nap."

"Only old people nap." Dante informed him.

"I _am _old." He said indignantly.

"Yeah, but not _wrinkly_ old."

"Fine, then if you don't mind I would like to continue resting my eyes. Away with you, pests." He said, shooing them away with his hands in a playful manner.

The boys snickered and left, retreating to whatever they could think of to keep them amused.

-An Hour Later-

Dante had wracked his brains for everything he could think of that might possibly frighten his father in the slightest and had spent a while going through this list with Sparda himself…who had quickly grown annoyed. The Dark Knight had been politely asked if he had a problem with churches…what with being a devil and all. Sparda had chased him up to his room and had then retreated to the sitting room to channel hop on the TV.

Convinced his father was lying about his fear Dante decided that he would test out each one he could think of on his father…first up was going to be spiders. He had spent ten minutes looking for the biggest spider he could find with Jackpot's help…well…if running around randomly and barking his head of at caterpillars could be considered help. Dante then snuck into the room where Sparda was dozing in his favourite chair in front of the TV with the Orb Web spider perched on his palm and a torch he had taken from the shed.

And then Eva walked into the room. "_What _do you think you are doing, young man?"

At the sound of his wife's voice, Sparda woke and the first thing he saw was the large silhouette on the wall beside him. He yelped and nearly jumped out of his chair, eyes flying wide.

Dante started laughing and Sparda looked both sheepish and annoyed as he saw that the giant spider shadow was being cast only by the torch and the arachnid his son had cradled in his left hand.

"Are you alright, honey?" Eva asked him as he clutched his chest like he was going to have a heart attack and gave his son a glare filled with venom.

"Dante, don't you_ ever_ do that to me again!"

"You're scared of spiders! I knew it, I just knew it! I've got to tell Verge! Hahahahaha!"

"I am _not_ afraid of spiders…I though it was Phantom! I still owe him because of that stupid bet." he tried to explain through his boy's laughter.

Eva backed out of the room very confused and not sure whether to scold Dante or join in his mirth with her own giggles.

_End­_

_Author's Note – Here we have what I hope to be the first of many chapters based off reviewers suggestions. Just to let you know, I am already working on the Christmas one but I think that it may come in parts because it could turn up to be a bit longer than most of these chapters. So stay tuned._

_Thanks and cookies as always!_

Kerrianne Harrington – I_ try so hard to keep the boy's in character but there's not much I can do for Eva and Sparda…hey ho…I can't imagine Vergil being 'huggly and soft' anyway, even as a kid. I'll try and stick with the humour but sometimes I fails me._

mrs.johntracy – _Yeah, a teenage one has been suggested before and l may do one at some point but right now I have no solid ideas. Well have to wait and see. Thank you for reviewing!_

windchaser90 – _Thank you and welcome to my insanity_.

Bustahead – _Probably not what you expected but here you go…I tried my best with your suggestion. Hope you like it. And TRAINERS all the way! Not that I even own a pair…(looks at the Dr. Martens and New Rocks in the corner)_

Meirelle –_ (gasp!)_ _If you draw a picture, pleasepleaseplease show me? I'm glad you liked the image…it got stuck in my head and begged to be written._

Ri2 – _Uh…ok…Well, there was nothing in the dark actually; he just brushed up against something normal and got spooked. Daft, I know, but it seemed alright at the time._

Yasmine – _Glad you liked! Thank you!_

BiOhAzArD – _I'll tell C-chan you liked it when I next see her. And I know already she will grin and say thank you but then say it was not really her best…and I will hit her for putting herself down again. And don't worry; I will not let your comment cast aspersions on your manliness._

Tenshi no Eikou – _Glad you like it and I'll try to keep with the humour more…but when I run out I have to resort to cute. Thank you for the review!_


	14. O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree

They all had to admit it, and even Jackpot managed to look slightly awed, the tree they had chosen to grace the living room was very impressive; pretty damn tall, pretty damn wide and just…well…damn pretty. It had taken the best part of an hour to decorate, mainly because Jackpot had decide to help which meant he dragged tinsel around the house until everywhere he went twinkled beautifully and all he had left in his mouth was a bald string.

"It's massive." Dante said bluntly once they were all done.

Vergil nodded and turned to the box of decorations to fish out the angel which was yet to be put in its rightful place at the topmost point.

Dante spotted it and instinctively began to attempt to wrestle it off of him. "I wanna put it up!"

"I got to it first, so let go!"

"But you did most of the baubles!"

Sparda reached between them and easily plucked the winged doll out of their hands. "This again? Eva, you said that we'd get a star for this year."

Her husbands face reminded Eva of a hopeful puppy. "We never got around to it, I'm sorry, we'll get one next year."

Now he had the face of a puppy that had been kicked. "Oh…"

Just like all of the previous years Sparda hoisted both boys onto his shoulders so they could wedge the angel on together. Then they all stood back and admired the completed tree.

But Sparda was scowling…

"What's up dad?" Vergil enquired.

"Flamin' angel." He grumbled. "Look at it; perched up there with its holier-than-thou little smile."

"Um…dad?" Dante piped up. "A snail is holier than you; you're a _devil_."

Eva shook her head…they were really going to have to get a star next year or Sparda would spend every Christmas making faces at the tree.

-Later That Day-

While Eva was in the garden talking over the fence to a neighbour and Sparda was out walking Jackpot (alone, as he'd wanted some thinking time) Vergil was reading in the font room and Dante was stumbling into the aforementioned room with his arms very fully.

"What are you doing?" Vergil asked, taking in all of the items he could see. "Aren't those the devil things dad gave us?"

"Yup." Dante agreed. "I figured we could swap the angel for one of the star shaped ones and then dad can't moan anymore. And the rest of them would make cool decorations."

Vergil smiled and then both of them went about re-decorating the tree…with the aid of sticky tape, blue tack and a tall stool from the kitchen. And when Sparda came back he could do little more than stare at the make-over.

"It's…uh…_different_, I'll give you that. Oh nice, no angel!" he announced, clapping his hands.

The twins gave each other a firm nod to signify a job well done.

When Eva came in came in and saw it she had nothing much to say though did wonder what had possessed her sons to think that those odd stones carved with screaming faces would make nice decorations.

And that would have been the end of it if it were not for Sparda's small accident with a mistaken bottle of holy water, leaving him weak enough so that…

-Three Days Later-

…he caught a cold. Not a particularly bad one, but it was enough to make him sneeze on the Chrsitmas Tree and involuntarily let go of a little bit of power. It was quite pretty, the way the Gold Orb, the White Orb and the Devil Star all glowed brighter and then exploded like fireworks, but then things became very ugly when the tree began trying to eat poor Sparda while it turned into something that wouldn't have looked out of place in Little Shop of Horrors.

"Aghh!" was Dante's cry as he dived out of the way of one wildly whipping root which had burst its pot.

"What did you do!" Vergil screeched, heading for the door.

"Uh…owww!" was all Sparda had to say.

Eva was already rummaging in a cupboard but then stopped when she remember that they had locked all of the holy water away in a box on top of the fridge in the kitchen because of Sparda's earlier 'incident'. "What do we do! How do you deal with an evil demonic Christmas tree!"

But it seemed Jackpot had the answer…after his barking hadn't made the monster pine go away he got in close and sparked up.

Needless to say; the tree did not last five seconds under the blaze of a protective hellhound. The fire alarm blared until Sparda wrenched the battery out and then they all gathered to look at the smoking pile of ash and melted glass that had previously been their tree. The fire extinguisher Sparda had squirreled away under the stairs not long after introducing Jackpot to the family took care of the still burning carpet, curtains and other bits of furniture. Jackpot, now 'normal', looked pretty proud of himself for saving his masters and mistress.

"I guess were getting a plastic one now, huh?" Dante suggested…noting that the remainder of the devil items were still intact, nestled in the warm cinders. They'd dig them out in a while.

Eva was…stumped. Mouth hanging open she stared almost blindly at the family pet who wagged his tail and panted back at her. "Wha…?"

"Oh, um, yes…well…" Sparda coughed. "…I…err…Eva, honey…there's…uh…something you aught to know…"

_End_

_Author's Note – Oh…my…god…that was terrible. I'm sorry that this one took so long to get here, you see I have hit what my friend calls my 'Annual Wall' which is like Writer's Block, but not…_o.O _I have plenty of ideas but I can't seem to write them down and if I do I instantly bin them. It nearly killed me to post this as I'm really not happy with it but it's all I've got. I'm halfway through two others and there are going to be a few more Christmas ones (yes, you heard me correctly; multiply Christmas chapters…basically one chapter arc that got too long and has to be divided.)_

_At around this point I would do my replies…but FF has decided that it's not allowed anymore…poop. So, instead, any review I get will be replied to with the 'reply' feature that come with reviews now. I promise to reply to every one I can. Ooooh, this is a long message…I'd best be off now. Bye-e! And thank you all for reviewing and reading my randomness! Cookies! Enjoy!_


	15. Grin and Bear It

Grin and Bear It

It was a rare and almost non-existent occurrence to see Sparda's face paled in obvious fear and this just so happened to be one of those days.

Eva stepped into the hallway to find him practically slumped over the telephone stand, using his shoulder to hold the receiver to his ear so that he could have both hands flat to the wall as if for support.

She could hear only his side of the conversation and it went something like this –

"Of course…yes…no, no it's no trouble…don't worry, we'd love it…sounds just great, honestly…I'm sure she'll be absolutely fine and it shouldn't take too long anyway…always room for more…" he seemed to be forcing a smile through gritted teeth. "…they're fine, just as hyper as usual…yes, I know…I'm sure they can't wait…I really must go, there are a million things that I need to do today…yes, well…yes…uh huh…alright, well, goodbye then…bye..." he gently placed the receiver down and growled something demonic that Eva could not understand in the slightest.

"Is something the matter?" She asked after he seemed to have finished cursing the communication device. She would have to replace it now as very bad things had happened to the last two he had yelled at; one had ended up possessed and nearly gave a telemarketing lady a heart attack and the other had disappeared in a puff of sulphurous smoke when he had 'damned it all to hell'. Demonic swearing could be very potent at times.

"You could say that, yes." Sparda replied, smoothing back his hair and calming down. "It's about Christmas; there's been a change of plan."

"What?" she asked…he looked petrified. She stepped over and took his hands in comfort. "Who was that?"

He all but collapsed into her arms. "Your parents. They want to come this year, they say they don't want any excuses. They want to stay over and I just couldn't say no. You know how your mother can be…I can't face her…I'm pathetic…"

"Oh dear." Eva mumbled. Her parents were not in the least bit approving of her choice of husband. They found him too…_odd_ for their liking and were often patronising and sometimes flat out insulting when it came to matters involving him. They put up an act of tolerance for their daughter's sake but it wasn't much of an effort. They thought the only good thing the white haired weirdo had contributed to the family were the twins they now adored…but the twins preferred to join their father in his varying attempts to hide or escape from the dreaded in-laws whenever they were due.

Christmas was going to be hard.

-Christmas Eve Morning-

It wasn't terribly early…in fact it was bordering afternoon when Sparda was rudely woken by a lot of rough shaking by his wife. "Get your lazy self out of that bed." Eva demanded.

"'m up…" he announced in a garbled moan while trying to keep bleary eyes open and focused. "Wha?"

"I don't want everything left to the last minute so I need to you to get things done today. You've already put it off long enough and _they'll_ be here tomorrow. I need to you squirrel away anything abnormal."

"Uh?"

"Yes, you know exactly what I mean. A sword or two on the walls is decoration and a conversation piece but an entire armoury in the bedroom is not going to go unnoticed."

"'s not like they come 'n 'ere…" he argued in his half-awake drawl while sitting up and brushing down his morning hair with his fingers. You just can't take a man (or devil, even a legendary one) seriously when his morning hair makes him look like a dishevelled dandelion.

"Well, actually…they will. They'll be sleeping in here."

His eyes snapped wide and he was suddenly _very_ awake. "I beg your pardon?"

"The spare room is in too much of a state and will have to be storage for your 'things' so I've had to come up with some arrangements. The boys will have to share one of their beds and I'll take the one they decide not to use. My parents will be here in our room and you'll have to use the sofa…unless you want to swap with me."

Sparda blinked and produced an uncharacteristic squeaking sound. "Can't we just clear the spare room? I could put it all into a pocket dimension or something…"

"Last time you did that it all popped out again in the middle of dinner, onto the table, with a demon attached. The beef joint was ruined and it frightened the life out of me."

"Alright, alright, stop looking at me like that. I'll sleep on the sofa. Uh…do Dante and Vergil know about this yet?"

"Yes, I told them a little while ago. They aren't happy."

"Little wonder." He sighed and willed himself to crawl out of bed.

Once he was washed, shaved and dressed he threw himself into the task of hiding everything he could find that hinted of things that may be out of the ordinary. First to go were the majority of swords and his guns, then bows and crossbows, staves, spears, knives and throwing daggers. A couple of shields were next on the list, closely followed by a variety of 'trophies' from various battles that he happened to be personally proud of. Other odds and ends that had to vacate plain sight were archaic and demonic artefacts and items.

When this was all done to Eva's satisfaction, he decided he would go and see when the twins really thought about the situation. Eva said they were not happy, but that would just be her own deduction from they way they acted as they would never tell her the truth for fear of upsetting her…but with their father they were always brutally honest.

"So what's wrong with you two?" he asked, leaning on the wall as he stepped into their room where they were playing Chase the Ace on Vergil's bed. "You look like the Playstation just broke."

"Gran's gonna start petting us again." Dante wailed, scooting over to his brother to gesture for support, the game forgotten.

Vergil got the hint. "She pinches our cheeks every time she sees us and it _hurts_, dad. She treats us like dolls."

Sparda sighed and crossed over to where they were, sitting down between them though being mindful not to park himself on the cards littering the duvet. "I know, I know…I don't like it any more than you do. But they are family…we can't keep them away."

"What if Jackpot does something?" Vergil gasped…it was the first time any of them had thought about that.

Sparda buried his head in his hands. "Oh no…this is worse than I thought…much worse…"

"Man, this is gonna be the worse Christmas in the history of Christmases. It'll be Jackpot's first one and it'll be a bad one." Dante said, while slumping against his father.

Vergil did the same on the other side. "Dad, can't we just go away for while?"

"I'd like to but it isn't going to happen. No way out this time, kids." He told them while giving them both a hug. "We just have to grin and bear it."

_End_

_Author's Note – My apologies for the lateness. Wall's not gone yet, but I'll carry on as best I can. As always, the biggest of thanks go out to anyone and everyone who read this and especially those who review. Cookies for all who want 'em._

_And now, I have an announcement to make! After much discussion over glasses of coke it has been decided that a spin off of Growing Pains will be in the pipeline. It will be collaboration between me and my friend Chicken-Chan (who helped come up with many ideas for GP) and it will be like this one, but we'll be able to follow the twins' misadventures in college_ O.O _It's currently unnamed, but we have many a plan for it, so watch this space._

_Well, with that little bit of shameless advertising over I bid thee farewell until the next update…which I hope won't take as long as this one did._


	16. Anniversary: Side A

The Anniversary

Side A

Sparda had always been careful to keep his true identity, as it were, a secret; concentrating hard when out in public and going over every action and word twice in his head before doing or saying anything in a desperate attempt to make sure nothing every slipped. He'd been getting used to it and it had almost become second nature…but now he was a tad on the nervous side and that meant he was having to go over things again.

It was his and Eva's wedding anniversary and he was desperate not to screw it up. They had gone out to a meal at a fancy restaurant, leaving the twins in the care of a babysitter that their neighbour knew well and recommended. He wasn't sure whether he was more worried for the poor girl looking after their children and hellpuppy or about there being a repeat of two years ago. Two years ago…oh dear…the last time they had gone out for a meal like this…demons everywhere you could look trying to ruin it and lop their heads off…it just didn't make for a romantic evening to celebrate their marriage…Eva had all but been in tears.

Well, that wasn't going to happen again; he'd seen to it. He'd been out every night for an entire week making sure all demons within the vicinity of the restaurant were well and truly taken care of…oh, they'd be back eventually but he should have done enough to keep them away for now. He was sick of things messing up.

He sighed to himself and continued munching away on his blue rare steak.

Now it was Eva's turn to sigh as she sipped her wine. "I still don't know how you can eat that; a piece of meat that was barely _shown_ the heat let alone cooked."

"It's warm all the way through." He argued. "It's cooked."

"If you say so."

"Don't look at me like that, please. You know what I'm used to. Where I come from the only meat you get is either raw or cremated. You pick up a taste for things when you've suffered it for long enough…and _this_ is a lot nicer than any I had back 'home'." He informed her, and you could hear the inverted commas when he mentioned the underworld.

Eva shrugged. At least he hadn't asked for it raw…she knew he tried so very hard to shrug of his demonic habits, and he was doing very well, but when it came to choosing his own meals rather than them being placed in front of him without his opinion on the matter he always picked what he was used to.

The meal progressed without incident but just when it looked as if it was going to be a perfect night Sparda's mobile started to rumble away silently in his pocket.

He grumbled something about 'infernal devices' to himself and dug the damnable thing out of his pocket. He took a second to peer at the screen, debating whether to turn it off and ignore the call, but then saw who it was that was calling. "Oh dear."

"What is it?"

"Home." He sighed in an exasperated manner and tried to surreptitiously take the call. "Hello?"

Eva watched his face fall. Then he stuffed the mobile back in his pocket before standing up. "Where are you going? What's wrong?"

"Just stay here, I'll be right back. It was the boys; they say a demon showed up at home. They're ok and they've got it trapped in the toilet but don't know what to do with it. The sitter fainted. I'll go take care of it. Don't worry, I won't take long, I promise. You just finished your fish and I'll be back before dessert."

And with that he left, but not before cramming a chunk of steak in his mouth to be going on with.

-Half An Hour Later-

Sparda returned and plonked himself back down in his seat without a word, resting his elbows on the table and cradling his head in his hands.

"Um…" Eva said, taking in his now tired visage. "How did it go?"

"Fine. It was only a lesser demon but it was pretty quick…gave me the run around for a minute or two but I sorted him out. The boys and I managed to wake up the sitter, convinced her she'd fallen and banged her head because something spooked her. She'll be fine for the rest of the night. Now…where's that waitress…I'm in a pudding mood."

She couldn't help but smile and shake her head. The dinner plates were already gone and he was ready to move on to the last course as if he had only gone to the toilet rather than rushing home to fight a demon. After a minute or two, the waitress came over. "Here are the…oh god! Sir! You're bleeding!" she yelped.

"Huh?" Sparda grunted.

"Your back!" the girl screeched. "Oh my god! Um…uh…I'll call an ambulance…just don't move!"

"Wha?" Sparda tried to look over his shoulder and could just about see the red stain spreading across and down his shirt as well as onto the white chair. "Oh no, I…oh I'm _so_ sorry, I've ruined your chair."

The waitress fainted while Sparda pulled on his dinner jacket and tried to mop up the mess he'd made. "Oh look at that…I'm sorry…it's going to leave a mark…I'll pay for it…I'm so sorry."

The waitress lay in a heap, the restaurant staff panicked, someone phoned for an ambulance and the customers rushed or sat around not knowing whether to try and help, leave or just carry on eating.

Somewhere amidst it all, two customers went missing.

-

On a park bench not ten minutes walk from the restaurant, a devil and his wife sat on a park bench.

"And you're sure that you're alright." Eva asked her husband yet again.

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine."

"But you're still bleeding."

"Cursed blades can do that. Don't worry; I won't even have a scratch in an hour or so."

They stayed a while at the park with Sparda apologising profusely for messing things up again…and stalking away briefly to terrorise and vent his frustrations on a demon he found lurking suicidally behind a nearby tree.

And speaking of terrorising….

Upon opening the front door and stepping back inside they found the babysitter unconscious in the hallway and a huge mess in the kitchen, not to mention the scorch marks dotted here and there about the place.

Dante and Vergil sat on the kitchen counter, covered in sticky jam, sugar and other sweet ingredients with broad smiled on their faces, looking for all the world as if they'd just had a food fight.

"The lady fainted again." Dante sniggered and took a bite out of a sandwich that was dripping with honey and various kinds of candies.

"So we made out own dinner." Vergil informed them proudly. "Um…but the fish fingers kinda melted a bit and stuck to the oven and burned and made it smell so we put the chips in the toaster."

"Oh," Dante added, "and Jackpot ate all the chocolate spread and then threw up in front of the TV."

He parents gawped.

Next year they were just going to stay at home.

_End_

_Author's Note – OhHellOhHellOhHell…I am sooo sorry for that disappearing act…and for not finishing the Christmas chapters…my brain dribbled out of my ears completely. Sorrysorrysorrypleasedon'tkillmesorrysorrysorry…But in my defence part of the non-postingness was because this site refused to upload the damn document. For ages! Seems to be okay now...touch wood._

_Thanks to all of you who reviewed and read this. I still plan to carry on with it but I'm not sure if I can keep up with doing one a week like I used to. What I will do, however, is post a little comment or rant every week on my bio page just to let people know that I'm still about and haven't up and vanished again. So if you ever wonder what's up and where I've gone; that's where you'll find out._

_Thanks again and I _will_ return._

'_Side B' of this will be what happened in the house while Sparda and Eva were out…that poor poor babysitter…(Muaahaha…eh-hem…)_


	17. Anniversary: Side B

Anniversary

Side B

"Don't you worry," the perpetually cheerful young lady whom had been called to watch the twins said, "You go out and have a great evening. Your kids will be safe with me."

Eva, although trusting of the girl's references and the fact that she had been recommended, was more than ready to argue a point that might enable her to negate the evening that had been planned...but Sparda ushered her out of the door with thanks to the sitter before his fretting wife could say a word.

The sitter, whose name was Christy waved as the parents of her charges went off about their business. With a sigh, the red head turned to the adorable boys that had taken up perch side by side halfway up the stairs, with their pet watching intently from behind them by resting its head on their shoulders.

"That's a lovely doggy you have, huh? What did you say his name was again?" she enquired sweetly.

"Jackpot." they replied, faces stony and voices blank.

"That's cute" she replied, her smile never fading. "Have you had him long?"

"Long enough for mum to wanna get rid of him." Dante grumbled, scratching Jackpot behind the ear which caused the little hellhound's tail to thump against the stairs in delight.

"Aww, that's too bad; he seems like such a sweet little guy. Hmm...I've been told that you two still have some homework to be getting on with. Now, I don't want your mummy and daddy mad at me so how's about we go and get that done with. That way we'll have the rest of the night to have all the fun we want."

The twins turned to each other with identical looks that somehow suggested both sheer desperation and utter defeat. It was already terribly obvious that there was no way on earth that tonight was going to pass without a hitch.

For Dante, homework was something he attempted to not only put off until the last minute but actually forget about altogether. Vergil, on the other hand, being the smart arse that he was, treated the same activities with indifference. It never usually took him long and so it was no bother to him. Problems only usually ever arose when they were made to do their work in the same room, at the same time as each other. One of Dante's favourite pastimes was trying to distract Vergil, which would cause Vergil to grow increasingly annoyed and eventually explode, pursuing his sibling around the house while brandishing the nearest blunt object with the intention of braining him with it. Normally Sparda would break them up, relieve Vergil of his make shift weapon and send him to his room to calm down while making a hysterical Dante get back to his neglected work. But most of the time Vergil got his sweet revenge when his brother came crawling back to him asking for help with an equation, long after Vergil had completed all given tasks.

But tonight was not a usual night; tonight they had a strange lady suffering from perpetual happiness hanging over their shoulders all the time, trying to help them. Vergil had no desire whatsoever to be helped and was ignoring her with a sub zero attitude...Dante, however much he might _want_ the help, was never in a million years going to accept it from a sitter and so kept scuttling further away from her until he ran out of both table and chair and fell on the floor. This caused much mirth for Vergil and a lot of awkwardness for Dante as he tried to avoid Christy's sympathy and care.

The evening passed smoothly enough, the boys quickly retired to their room and played with their Gameboys with Jackpot acting as draught excluder and barricade while Christy went to see what to prepare for their dinner. She'd been left strict instructions as to when the boys and the dog should be fed and to not let Dante con her into giving him any sweets early, as he was a master of the art.

Things probably would have remained that way, peaceful enough, if it were not for the event about to unfold.

It all started with a scream

The scream in question belonged to Christy; it was shrill and short lived and carried an undertone of terror. Dante, Vergil and Jackpot leapt to their feet (or paws) in unison and raced for the kitchen where the sight that greeted them was Christy peacefully passed out on the floor, still clutching a baking tray with one hand. All of the colour had drained from her rosy face and her faint had been caused by the rag robed, spindly demon crouched up on the worktop. With a gesture a sword appeared in one misshapen, clawed hand, the blade of which was black as pitch with a dull dark orange glow pulsing at its edge.

"Uh oh..." Vergil breathed as it locked swollen, bloodshot eyes with him.

"I second that statement." Dante agreed.

"Here's the plan; Jackpot takes first go at it while we fetch our swords and then we all go together."

"Sounds good to me."

Jackpot didn't need to be told; the second Dante let go of his collar he sparked up and charged forwards, allowing his little masters to make a tactical retreat to gather weaponry.

All four combatants fought long and hard with neither side giving an inch but unfortunately it was inevitable that it was the demon that had the upper hand with its skill, experience and speed. It was only the twin's slighter size and sheer determination...as well as Jackpot's protective loyalty…that kept them all from becoming a small set of stains on the floor.

Somehow they managed to stand their ground and using Jackpot as a flaming shield to push it back they managed to herd the disturbing thing into the bathroom whereupon they used their swords to wedge the door closed.

Dante leaned his back against it and Jackpot bayed and howled as the door shuddered with the force of the demon's escape attempts.

Vergil dashed for the stairs yelling, "I'll call dad!"

-Downstairs-

The phone rang at least half a dozen times before it was answered and Sparda's voice spilled down the line. "Hello?"

"Dad, it's me; Vergil! Err…we've got a bit of a problem, please don't be mad…a demon turned up out of nowhere. But we're ok though; we've got it locked up in the loo…the sitter-lady is unconscious but she's alright too." There came a crash from upstairs. "Uh, gotta go!"

He slammed the receiver down and headed back upstairs.

"What happened!" he demanded. The scene looked no different from how he had left it.

"Not sure," Dante admitted, "but it sounded like it might have busted the sink."

"Mum and Dad are gonna kill us."

"S'not _our_ fault…do you…uhm…do you remember where mum put the keys for the box the holy water was put in?"

"No."

"Never mind then."

They put their shoulders to the door, wedged their feet in the carpet and hoped help would arrive before both they and the door gave way.

-A Few Minutes Later-

The front door crashed open and Sparda barrelled up the stairs to where Vergil was waiting at the top with his sword and Dante was ready to open up the toilet as soon as he was given a signal.

Sparda nodded and the door was flung wide open and the demon within leapt out, wheeling around and targeting the Legendary Dark Knight who was ready for the attack the very second it was instigated.

The twins and their dog (who had returned to his 'normal' form) watched from a distance as their father's superior battle skills bested the demon's and sent it back from whence it came…but not before it's ugly blade had cut Sparda deep…not that he even appeared to notice it had happened; shrugging it off as easily as he would a scratch or graze.

When it was all over he turned to his sons. "So where's the girl?"

"Christy? Kitchen." Vergil told him, pointing to the stairs.

They all briskly made their way back down said stairs and to where Christy was soundly unconscious…but a few cold glasses of water to the face and good shake saw her right. She woke with a start and sat up shrieking again as if she had not collapsed at all, pointing at the counter that the demon had appeared on…after a moment of incoherent babbling she gathered together the tatters of her sanity and took notice of the people around her.

"Are you alright?" Sparda asked kindly.

She blinked. "I'm…all wet…"

"Yes, well, we had to wake you up somehow, I apologise. Dante, would you please fetch a towel." He paused a moment for the item to be brought. "So, Vergil tells me that you slipped and hit your head. It must have been quite a fall."

"Hit my head? No, I…there was some sort of…animal…right here in he kitchen." She told him, though beginning to doubt her own words as soon as she spoke them.

"The back door and windows are all locked, nothing could have gotten in…oh dear…you must have fallen quite hard."

The next few minutes were pent convincing her that she had not just seen a cursed creature spawned from the deepest pit of the underworld and had just had a funny turn and bumped her head, triggering a vivid nightmare of sorts. She bought it and decided that she was fit to continue. Sparda said his farewells all over again and then returned to his wife, leaving the boys once again in Christy's care.

She rubbed her eyes and fixed her smile back on her face. "Sorry about that, guys. I'll do your dinner now."

Unfortunately she didn't get very far with it all; whilst going to the bottom of the stairs to ask whether they wanted fish fingers or not she collapsed again, her memories winning over the words she had been fed and her brain deciding that she could cope with it all much better if she were horizontal.

The twins heard the thump as she paid another visit to the floor and once they'd got to her found that trying to wake her was the most pointless thing they'd ever attempted. They both concluded that interrupting their parents again would only upset them…thusly it came to pass that they would make their own meal without aid from grown ups.

The fish fingers that had been left on a baking tray in the kitchen were finally placed in the oven they had been destined for and left in for entirely too long while the twins became engrossed in card games. By the time the fire alarm sounded to warn them of the smoke pouring out of the oven, the food had somehow managed to weld itself to the metal and the smell was clinging like a determined limpet.

"What do we do now?" Dante pondered aloud as he prodded the silencer button on the alarm with his sword and accidentally put a neat hole through it.

"We try again…I guess."

"But the oven stinks! I don't want fishy chips! Bleagh!"

"Could grill them."

"You know how to work it?"

"No…but I can work the toaster…s'pose we could toast them…It's all just heating things up, after all."

"Worth a shot."

But yet again it must be noted that children, no matter their parentage, are forgetful creatures and games consoles are very distracting. It took quite some time for their culinary experiment to be remembered.

"Hey, Verge, can you smell something? Like burning?" Dante asked lazily, performing another KO while his sibling was distracted.

"Where's Jackpot?" was the instant cry from Vergil.

They hurried and followed the smell to the kitchen where the chips they had placed so carefully in the toaster had gotten wedged and burnt.

"Oops." Dante muttered and upended the toaster…but only about half of them could be dislodged; a good few were left jammed in the bottom.

Vergil swiped the appliance from his brother's hands, picked up a fork and began probing around for them.

"Er…Verge…" Dante said, poking his brother in the shoulder to try and grab his attention.

"Shut up and quit it; I'm busy."

"But Verge…"

"Cut it out."

"_Verge_!"

"Shush!"

But Dante's attempted warnings went unnoticed and ignored and so it was no surprise to him when his dear brother was electrocuted. He _did_ try to warm him…it's not a good idea to poke about with a metal fork inside a toaster that's been knocked about a lot while the power is still on.

"Yeah…uhm…Verge…it's still plugged in."

"Bit late." Vergil stated, not dead but slightly frazzled and feeling a bit bouncy…and his hair was now standing on end.

"Hey, that's not a bad look for you." Dante grinned.

Vergil then did what any good brother would do in such a situation; he beat Dante with the fork and chased him about the house.

Once he'd calmed down, however, he patted his hair down and they both returned to the kitchen.

"So _now_ what? Everything is totally messed up." Dante announced, throwing his hands in the air in an over-dramatic display of defeat.

Vergil dangled a loaf of bread in front of his face. "Sandwiches?"

Dante's eyes lit up and a distinctly devilish grin became encamped on his lips. "And there's no mum about to say what not to put in it."

The grin appeared infectious and soon Vergil was sporting one of his own as the kitchen was turned upside down as they raided it for anything with a high sugar content. Jams, honey, golden syrup and chocolate spread all found their way between slices of Hovis…and it wasn't long before they became slightly more adventurous with their fillings and dived into packets of crisps, toffees, caramels, Smarties, jelly babies and other such confectionary. Jackpot managed to devour the pot of Nutella while his masters' enjoyed an enthusiastic food fight and went unnoticed for nearly ten minutes when he vomited it all back up again in front of the TV where it steamed and stank and began to eat a hole in the carpet, bubbling quietly to itself.

When Sparda and Eva returned however, it went without saying that they were not best pleased, vowing to stay at home on future anniversaries…and it was a long time before Christy could bring herself to baby-sit ever again.

_End_

_Author's Note – I'm so sorry it's taking me so long to come up with these. This one would have been ready a few days ago but my lovely laptop saw fit to eat half the file and I had to write it all over again…hence it didn't turn out quite as planned. I also apologise for not replying to the reviews for the last chapter…I usually do and so I feel quite rotten for not getting around to it this time. I promise I will in future. Thanks to all who have ever reviewed and/or read this fic and I hope I can come up with some more. I think I'll go back to the suggestions in some of the older reviews and try to come up with some plot around them._

_Hopefully it won't be such a long wait for the next one. Thanks for being so patient!_


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